Many industrial and commercial products such as liquid and powered detergents, food mixes, medications and pesticides, sold in bulk form, are dispensed from plastic containers in carefully measured portions. For the customer's convenience, some of these containers are sealed with relatively-large snap-on or screw-on caps specially designed to hold measured amounts of the product desired for each use. Examples of some of these types of containers may be found in the following U.S. Pat. Nos: 4,706,829; 4,917,268 and 4,993,605, to name a few. However, certain products will adhere to and build up in the cap making it difficult to remove and refasten the cap for proper sealing, especially after repeated usage.
Other prior art containers have been devised with removable, separately fabricated measuring cup dispensers, to meet specific requirements of the product and needs of the consumer. For example U.S. Pat. No. 3,526,313 to Kull et al. discloses a food container having a handle with integrally formed slots for convenient attachment of separately fabricated accessories such as a small container and a spoon; U.S. Pat. No. 4,373,640 to Resio discloses a medicine bottle with a combination plastic spoon and screw cap; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,995,265 to Soderberg discloses a spoon which can be snapped on and off the neck of a bottle. Each of these measuring dispensers, being appended to the side of its respective container, is vulnerable to damage in shipping and handling. Therefore, they are all typically packaged in an outer wrapping, or box. U.S. Pat. No. 4,095,716 to Meany, on the other hand, discloses a spoon stored within the container and thus protected from damage. Unfortunately, the handle, as well as the bowl of the spoon, is immersed in the container's contents. While satisfactory for their intended purposes, the above-described container and measuring cup combinations lack the convenience and practicability desired by consumers for certain products sold in bulk form.